1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a player and playing method and program which continuously play multiple pieces of audio data recorded on a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many portable players having a compact hard disk drive as a recording medium have been commercially available. A compact hard disk drive has a recording capacity of the order of several gigabytes (GB) to several tens of GB and is being rapidly and widely spread since it can record a significantly large amount of contents data such as several hundreds to several thousands of contents pieces. Since such a player has a compact and light-weight cabinet, contents including audio data such as a tune may be recorded on a recording medium and be carried to outside along with the player. Thus, the tune recorded on the recording medium can be played outside for enjoyment. The interface for selecting and designating a track tune from significantly many tunes recorded on a recording medium is preferably capable of selecting desired contents fast. From the past, a desired track may be selected by moving a cursor on a contents list displayed on a display section by using a rotational wheel or a multi-direction key commanding the up/down or horizontal/vertical directions. For example, pressing a play key, for example, may play contents corresponding to the cursor position.
Such a player may often play contents based on a list having multiple contents pieces selected in a predetermined manner. For example, a list may include contents pieces recorded in one album. Alternatively, without limiting thereto, a list may have contents organized in artists or genres, for example. Alternatively, a user may create a list having a collection of the user's favorite contents. This is especially called user created list or simply playlist.
In a general method for playing based on a list, contents on a list are automatically and sequentially played in a predetermined order, such as in an order of being listed on the list. When playing the last contents on the list ends, the player stays at a standby state until a user designates contents or a list to play next.
By the way, a portable player may often used under a condition that it is difficult to perform operations for searching and instructing to play desired contents by viewing the screen of a display section of the player, such as on the move outdoors. On the other hand, according to the technology in the past, the next playing operation is not started unless an operation for instructing to play is given to a player every time after the end of play of a list. Furthermore, when a playing operation is instructed without selecting contents or a list, the contents that the user prefers may not typically played, and the user may feel inconvenience.
In order to resolve the inconvenience in playing the next contents after the end of the play of a list, JP-A-2004-241062 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technology that automatically moves to an playing operation on contents in the next album after all of contents in one album have been played.